Do eleven broad beans constitute self sufficiency?..........

...............oh, and a few very small carrots tasting peculiarly soapy?

Now, I'm not known for my green fingers. Optimistically I planted some carrots, broad beans, rocket and had some tomatoes donated by a sympathetic friend. We've had the results of the beans, all eleven them and very delicious they were too. The rocket was gone after two salads and of course I forgot to sow any more seeds. The carrots are strange. The tomatoes are more hopeful, I'm quite proud of them. However, I don't think I'll be adding myself to the huge waiting list for a local allotment because a: I'm a realist and actually quite lazy, and b: I'm a crap gardener. But I tried...............


We did get a few apples from our little apple tree.................


..............and this little beauty has been the star of the garden this year, ie. it's still alive! Unfortunately we can't eat it.

Kit is showing the same gardening skills as her mother. This is her "remedy" for an ailing rose that I was trying to save. Firstly cut off all the remaining leaves, next behead the rest of the flowers in the garden (very few), oh and the odd tomato, and add. Water profusely and wait...............I'm not holding out much hope!


We've been slightly more successful in the baking department. Using the childrens toy mixer we made pancakes, lots of them. And they've all gone, yum, yum!

More later in the week.........................................

Just time for a quickie!.................

Come on everybody, cleanse those dirty minds. I'm talking about a new post. It's nearly midnight, my eyebags are the size of suitcases, my back's hurting from sitting at the computer and my vision's gone blurry - too long gazing at other peoples' blogs methinks! Ian has become a blog widower, poor bloke, maybe it'll persuade him to buy me a laptop so at least he can look at other people's houses with me - unlikely!



This is the front of our house, I suppose the number painted on is a bit of a giveaway there! It's funny but people know our house from that painted number. It's something I copied from the big, posh townhouses round here, and when I tell people where we live they often mention the painted number and how much they like it. You can just see Kitty's pyjama'd legs in the doorway, she was wondering why I was taking photos. One of her favourite questions is "What you doin' Mummy?" with a sound of bewilderment in her voice!



This is one of my favourite spots in the house, it's our little family gallery on the stairs. Before I go to bed each night and every morning when I get up these are the things I see. Most of them are simply blown up on ordinary printer paper from the computer and framed. I love black and white prints, so much more flattering and kind as the years advance I think! The hall in our house was painted bottle green when we moved in, it was so dark the removal men kept bumping into one another! It's also covered in textured wallpaper that I would love to get rid of, but finances do not allow that so I'll make do with camouflaging it with family pics.



Finally, I know, I know, I've been sucked into the croc trap (these are Jack's), but I have to admit we love them! They are so comfortable and I have the excuse that we've bought them for camping. No more standing in other peoples' hair in the showers, and they are great for the garden, beach etc. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

Everything's coming up roses..........

So how come I do all the hard work and these two get the deckchairs? Something's gone wrong somewhere!
I'm so excited, we finally have a nice rose in our garden. When we moved in this rose was covered in blackspot and had about three leaves so last year I hacked it down to the ground and a miracle has happened. It's come back so healthily and the roses are a much prettier pink than before, I love it!

Finally the garden seems to be taking off a bit. The children and I spent all day yesterday out there, them in the paddling pool and me grafting away, and I have to say it's starting to look pretty good. It's not a big space, about 50' by 20' and half of it is filled with climbing frames, scooters and various bits of "works in progress" (ie. tat), but it's enough for me. I have fantasies (hold on!) that I'd love to have acres of garden but in reality I'd never have time to dedicate to it and it'd just be another thing to get stressed about!

I have lots of ideas for my perfect garden but that will come when the children are older, for now we share it and they love it out there, although I think they preferred it as a building site when they could dig wherever they liked! Jack has his own little bit planted with delphiniums, stocks a clematis and the obligatory sunflower and he now loves "Gardeners World" - what have we done to him?

It's been a fantastic weekend. On Saturday I had a whole day child-free - yes, a WHOLE day! Andrea and I went to the open studios day in Stroud where artists open their houses for the weekend to the general public. The sun shone all day, we went to Nailsworth for lunch and a bit of shopping and then we wandered around the most amazing houses in the most amazing places all day. You know when you just love every minute of a day, we were like two schoolkids, I think the lack of children made us a bit giddy! Ian looked after the children all day and when I got back they were bathed and in bed - BLISS! It was something Andrea and I both needed, and my batteries are recharged, I'm inspired to create, now all I need is a studio - hmmmm!

Couldn't take any photos of the houses as I felt a bit awkward asking so the only one I got is of where we had lunch, and it's not a good one at that - never mind!

For some unknown reason, blogger has gone completely haywire tonight - has anyone else out there had problems?

The garden beckons

The sun has been shining for days now so the time has come to venture into the garden and try to do something creative with it. We only have a small garden, typical of a terraced house but I think it could be lovely. Only 3 weeks ago it was a compete tip, all the grass had gone and it was full of broken toys (no pics unfortunately so I can't do the garden makeover before and after shots!)

Then a man came with wheelbarrow loads of topsoil and rolls of turf and transformed it in a day. Okay, we're not quite ready for Chelsea yet but believe me it's a vast improvement....

Now all I need to do is add some plants. I've been and made a few purchases but to be quite honest I'm clueless when it comes to plants. I mean I watch Gardener's World but that's mainly so I can admire Monty's big hands! You can just see some of the perennials I've planted, they're not looking too thrilling at the moment, but I have great hopes. Any tips for great plants would be gratefully received. My problem is that I'm just too impatient and gardening is one of those things that takes time. So I'm trying to train myself into not going out there every five minute to see if anything has grown yet.

More successful have been my meagre selection of pots, here's a peek.........

I think auriculas are one of my favourite flowers. This little one had been ignored all year but when I moved it to it's new spot it suddenly gave me all these gorgeous flowers. I will be nuturing it from now on!

Geraniums are another favourite so I can't wait for these little lovelies to blossom.

Does anybody know what these are? I bought them years ago from a garden centre and they have flowered faithfully year on year but I don't have a clue what they are. (Note the space hopper in the background, sort of spoils the effect!)

Finally I have planted a few pots of various salad leaves. I'm always totally over excited when anything sprouts, I come over all evangelical and drag the children over to see my efforts. Needless to say they're a bit nonplussed about the tiny seedlings, but I love them!

I had a bit of time today whilst Kitty slept to firstly sit in the garden and read my new books, hence I now have minor sunburn - why do I never learn? I also managed to make a new cover for my car boot deckchair so I now have somewhere to laze on those hazy summer afternoons, glass of Pimm's in hand (who am I kidding?).

Don't you just love the feeling that summer is on it's way?